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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

I left behind the pack… and the heartrate monitor… and training plan for the day… and I just ran… just me shirtless in the Florida sunshine with just an iPod shuffle clipped to my shorts…

And I just ran… and ya know… it was awesome. It was one of those runs where everything felt good… even upping the pace only smoothed out my stride.

Now some folks run for the medals… or the T-Shirt… or the camaraderie of friends.

For me…. It's the joy of movement… the sun on my bare skin… moving with the rhythm of the music in my ears… thoughtlessly repeating the steps to a dance I know so well… and love so deeply…

And now hours later… I have a slight fatigue in my legs… and joy in my soul

The poem below was written by John Gillespie Magee, an American pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force in the Second World War. He went to Britain, flew in a Spitfire squadron, and was killed at the age of nineteen in December 1941 during a training flight.

I kinda turned the words of his poem over in my mind today while I ran… I may never pilot a plane… and this fella may not have been a runner but I think we both get it.

High FlightBy John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds -and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of -wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.Hovering there I've chased the shouting wind alongand flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.

"Up, up the long delirious burning blueI've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,where never lark, or even eagle, flew;and, while with silent, lifting mind I've trodthe high untrespassed sanctity of space,put out my hand and touched the face of God."

Thursday, May 23, 2013

And I was looking forward to the challenge. The plan called for a big long Friday:

1 hr stairmill and 25 minute weight circuit at lunch

5 hour run after work (basically a nice easy marathon)

The lunch workout went okay… I swear I could stairmill in my sleep

The evening workout… what I was really amped about well… The Cinderella Marathon was how I had it billed in my head… just run 26.3 and get home by midnight

let's just say that other life commitments pushed the starting time back to 8PM (2000 for you military types). Noww if you know mw even a little bit you would have already assumed that would just mean that I would be finishing 5 hours later… and if you are good at the maths you would soon summate that I would be running until ~ 0100 without glass slippers… and hopefully not turning into a pumpkin.

In the meantime I ate supper… turkey and roast beef sub… etc

So off we went… yes that's right us… Judi came along as well to run with me for the first hour then run walk for 4 more hours with the plan being that we meet up in the last few miles and finish together.

A couple of miles in we took measure of ourselves… Judi said she felt okay… I concluded that I felt a little full but thirsty.

Let's just say that I don't get out much… the route I chose went through the bar district at the beach and the drunks on bikes were out in force… for those of you who are cycling activists… "bikes belong", "Share the road", etc… you would hang your head in shame at the crazy, erratic, deathwishish, display put on by these citizens on two wheels. And all of this on streets that I thought would be pretty well lit with streetlights….. oh, nay nay

Traffic thinned by the turnaround… but so did the streetlights… it was dark as a sack of black cats out there… and I was drinking a lot… and still thirsty

I noticed I had missed a call… repeated calls… Judi was lost… somewhere out in the darkness… after running a couple of more miles I finally got in touch with her… by then she had used her phone to Magellan her way to safety. Whew!

She was a good bit ahead of me but nothing to do but run… and eat… and drink like a camel.

I stopped and refilled my water at about 18 miles… then caught Judi with just about one to go. Overall a very happy ending. I nailed my Time/pace goals… managed my GI issues… . and ended with the fastest mile of the day.

Saturday was a day off…well except for the other life stuff… I did get in a nice nap, however.

Sunday had this on the agenda:

And guess who decided to show up to the Sunshine State on Sunday?

That's right… summer, sun, and humidity finally arrived… about a month late but… it's all good training for the desert I figure.

I decided to break the run up as follows:

12 mi to the gym 5 @ 10:30 and 7 @ 9:30ish – this went okay but the effort level was pretty high… I had cottonmouth again…

reviewing the Noakes book "Waterlogged" the premise of which is that we (endurance athletes) often drink too much and that dehydration is not an inhibitor to performance. He states that we should drink to thirst… well I was a thirsty mofo… I wanted to just yell "Hey Kool-Aid!"

I did make it to the gym and close to being on pace…

6 miles on the stairmill

I have had good results of late doing stairmill work in the middle of a long run… not to mention this is a good race simulation… on Sunday however… I was gassed… and proceeded to drink about 80oz of water on the stairmill (to thirst, right?)… by the time I was finished I was a little waterlogged but still thirsty…

9 miles home at 9:30ish pace

I walked out the door to the gym and just wanted to lie down… but I hitched up my skirt and just started to move… no care for pace… or distance I just pointed my feet towards home.

A couple of miles later… while feeling like I was dragging a cinder block I met the Subaru people

let me tell you how cool Subaru drivers are... so there I am.. cutting across a parking lot.. because... you know the shortest distance between two points and all... and to say I was running would be almost condescending... so anyway a Subaru Outback comes by with his-n-hers mountain bikes on it... they slow way down... I guess to see if there was anyone home behind my groovy white Oakley's... a couple of minutes later I see them driving back my way... hanging out the windows on both sides yelling and ringing cowbells. yep that put a bounce in my step... for a couple of minutes at least... thanks cool Subaru drivers!

Soon after the cowbells faded a kind of frenzy came over me…

I needed a Coke…

Ice cold… yes… that was the ticket… but the nearest store was a couple of miles away…

I began to think of all the ways I would like to ingest a Coke… on ice… bottled… yeah, yeah, the 6 ½ oz bottles are the best…

Then I started thinking that I really needed that syrupy goodness in my bloodstream as quickly as possible and though… man I'd even freebase that shit… then I started thinking about that a little bit… then I started thinking about what that really meant… I think I would need a Bunsen burner… and a crucible or something… and then I came to the conclusion that I really knew very little about freebasing and what I did know I probably got from a 60 minutes interview with Richard Pryor back in 1983… I have lived a sheltered life.

When I got to the store… not only did I buy a coke (it ended up being a fountain drink w/o ice – less fizz) I also got a snickers bar…. and for some unknown reason I smacked the veins in the crook of my arm... I have no idea what that was about...

Heaven-on-earth tho... absolutely delicious

And that's not all… a few minutes later I did feel better and could have continued on but… 26.2 was enough… and I was home.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Yep… on occasion I look at my own blog… and right there on the right hand side is the countdown…

Looming close…

That's okay… I'm getting ready (aka tired of the training)

Now don't get me wrong… I love the challenges of running the equivalent of a marathon on each day of the weekend… but I'm running out of convenient yet adventurous ways to get the miles in… and I'm getting better at the running and the recovering…

Well… I could stand to lose a few pounds… it's a southern tradition to fatten up the survivors when someone dies…

There I said it… that's the real reason I haven't posted in over a month… my mom died… kinda unexpectedly..

us

I had a couple of low mileage weeks last month but came back pretty strong… still doing about 75 per week but only 50 or so on the road… the balance on the stairmill

my Iron Maiden

My injury problem is better… oddly… it's still there… but I have been very careful to do nothing but running that requires core strength… that's right… totally avoiding anything remotely like core work… including spin class and most stretching

Can't lie tho… I miss my mom… we were very close… running screaming through the woods does help

she was always the life of the party

And yes… the desert awaits… as does our RATS family… heaven on earth… suffering on the trail only makes it better.